Twisted Carnival
by Saya-Sama
Summary: It's the way I love you, It's the way I kill you...TykixAllen AU
1. Take Me Away

**Hello! Here's a little TykiAre three-shot based on Kaori Yuki's "Boys Next Door". It's a really great and sad story that Saya would highly suggest to you (actually, it'd probably be better if you read the original before you read this). This story is very close to the original, but Saya did her best to make it her own. Please enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Saya doesn't own DGM or "Boys Next Door". They belong to Katsura Hoshino and Kaori Yuki, respectively.**

**Rating: M for pedophilia, prostitution, nondescript sex, killing, violence, etc. **

1. Meeting

"_Did you hear about him on the news?"_

"_Yeah, he's that murderer right? The one who was killing off all of those boys."_

"_Everyone said he was a good person, no one would've ever suspected him of this."_

"_He was a pediatrician, too!"_

"_That sick bastard."_

"_WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" _

"_GIVE ME MY SON BACK!"_

_The accused man kept his head low, not really hearing nor caring about the yells and jeers directed at him. What they said was true and he would not deny it. He was a filthy murderer, called the "Blind Man" for the way he blindfolded his victim's corpses. He wouldn't deny it, because he deserved his sentence. He wanted it, let them kill him, so that he could go to where _he_ was. _

'_I love you...'_

_He was lead through a crowd toward the courthouse, his hands cuffed behind him, and security guards all around him. They blocked his view of the people of the town, many of whom he knew. They did not, however, stop him from hearing them. They couldn't block out all the flashes of the reports' cameras either. Why was this place so loud and crowded...? A place where people crowded around and made noise, where there was lights and yelling... A carnival. That's what this was, he was being lead through a carnival... 'Just another twisted carnival...'_

000

'_Shit, shit, I've done it again...!' _Tyki looked down at the body of the male prostitute he'd just killed, and cursed again as he removed the dagger from the young man's heart. He'd been careful to stab through the brand on the slut's chest, it lied right over his heart. But that didn't matter now, because the boy was still staring at him, with glassy, dead eyes.

'_Don't look at me,'_ He thought, as he took out a blindfold and wrapped it over the victim's eyes, which became obscured with ebony strands as the corpse's head shifted to the side. _'Can't let them see me...'_

Now that the euphoria of the act had lessened, he was panicked, panicked and upset. The pretty black-haired boy on the ground at the end of this dark alley was a filthy creature, to be sure, but who was Tyki to judge? His hands were sullied with this thing's filthy blood! He sighed worriedly as he wiped the dagger clean on a clear patch of the dead boy's shirt.

Finally, he turned away from the evidence of his crime, only to find that something much worse was behind him: A witness. The boy behind him was quite a bit shorter than he, and looked to be about 15 or so. His silvery hair shone in the moonlight, and his skin was so pale it seemed to glow. He stared at Tyki with a lifeless expression, all too similar to the corpse at his feet. His eyes became wide with surprise, though at first they showed no genuine emotion. He was about to open his mouth and say something when footsteps became audible from around the corner of the alley.

"Oi! Allen! The Earl's gonna be pissed if we don't get back soon..." The speaker came around the corner, revealing himself to be a red-haired man, probably the same age as the raven-haired on the ground. Not wanting to stay around any longer, Tyki ran out of the alley. Little did he know though, that as he did something silver and glinting fell from his pocket and onto the ground.

The new-comer to the scene moved into the alley quickly when he saw whom it was on the ground. His face showed genuine horror.

"Oh shit...Yuu? Yuu! Oh God, Allen call a hospital or something! Yuu!" Lavi held the lifeless body as if it were glass, hoping beyond hope that this wasn't really the end. Allen however already knew that nothing would save the redhead's lover, but for his friend's sake, he got out his cell phone and called the hospital. As he listened to the dial tone, he bent down to pick up what the killer had left behind.

'_It's... a name tag?'_

000

"_You were born at this carnival, you know. It's your real mother, not me." Tyki looked up at his mother questioningly. Today was the first day she had ever taken him out with her like this, today was the first day she'd ever called him by name or even _looked_ at him. He was so happy to finally be recognized like this but...What did she mean, this carnival was his real mother? How could that be? _

"_Do you hear it? The music playing? Shall we go listen to it? They're playing near the jester, see? Go on, look," she said, pointing in the direction of a large crowd. In the center of the crowd of people was a jester, who was entertaining all the children at the front. Tyki nodded to her happily, before taking off, into the crowd, not noticing that his mother hadn't followed. She stood on the outskirts of the crowd, just watching until she couldn't see him any longer. She smiled giddily and walked away._

_When he finally realized she was not by his side, Tyki turned to look for her in the crowd, but couldn't see over all the people. Weaving through the crowd, he eventually made it to a clearing, but even then he could not see her. He ran and ran, trying desperately to find her. Finally, he came to the last tent, but when he walked in, he found he was home, in his living room. _

_He'd found his mother, too._

_She was lying on the sofa, strands of he dark, curly hair hanging around her face. Her mouth was slightly agape and blood dribbled down from the corner of it. One of her arms hung off the edge of the sofa, her hand lying on the ground. A dagger stuck out of her breast, directly over her heart. All around her were pictures and portraits, and everyone in every picture had their eyes covered by a smear of blood. _

_Tyki stood stunned in the doorway, not realizing that he was screaming. When he was sure that the horror of the scene could not become any greater, the hand lying on the floor reached up and extended toward him. Tyki moved back, stumbled, and fell._

000

Allen paced about in "his" room, inspecting the silver chain that lay in his palm. It shone dully in the dark lighting of the place, and he wished he had a window to open so that he could get more light in the room. He had to strain his eyes to read the little inscriptions on the little silver square at the center of the chain, but after a few minutes he was able to make out the tiny writing.

It was a pet collar, complete with the owner's name and contact information. What a ridiculously foolish thing to leave at the scene of a crime. Scratch that, what a stupid thing to bring along when going out to commit a crime! In his hands he held the identity of the Blind Man, Los Angeles' most recent serial murderer, whose latest killing had sent one of his closest friends spiraling into despair.

The white-haired boy was half-tempted to bring this little trinket to the police and tell them what he had omitted from him witness testimony. If he just told them where he'd gotten this, the mystery would be solved, the entire police force would run to this man's house and it would all be over. Not another friend or fellow worker of his would ever be mutilated again. Though, he supposed that for Lavi's sake, he could let the redhead do the honors.

Still, he knew what he wanted to do with this little collar, he knew what he wanted of that man. It wasn't revenge, no, not in the slightest, it was more like blackmail. He slipped the trinket into his pocket, and left for the red room that was two doors down from his blue one. He found it empty and shook his head slowly and forlornly; He should've realized where Lavi would be. Allen walked down to the black door at the end of the hallway, and it was in there that he found the redhead sitting in the chair at the corner, simply staring blankly at the room that had once belonged to his lover (not to say any of them really owned anything in this building, but it had been, in essence, Kanda Yuu's room).

"Lavi," Allen called, bringing his friend back to awareness. Lavi looked up at him with a dull green eye, the other covered with an eyepatch; He had been permanently blinded in that eye after a particularly brutal beating back in the days when he was new to this and just wanted to escape.

"What do you want, Allen?" The still figure asked, his voice flat and rather emotionless.

"Come with me, I need to talk to you," Allen said, mentally adding that he'd rather talk somewhere that wasn't bugged. All the rooms were bugged, even the rooms of the dead. Rooms that would be put to use again soon enough. Allen was sure that Lavi didn't want to leave this room again until it was no longer Yuu's, but the younger boy was sure that the deceased man wouldn't mind if Allen took Lavi aside for a second to talk about a more pressing matter with the redhead.

Lavi shook his head, as Allen had expected him to do. The white-haired sighed before taking another step into the room. He'd never been in here before, Kanda didn't allow most people into his room if it wasn't for business. He didn't feel like he should be in here now, either.

"Lavi, I know you don't want to leave just yet, but I need you to help me with something, and I have a suspicion that you'll definitely want to participate." Lavi raised an eyebrow to the statement, and weighed his options in his mind. He was pretty sure that Allen would be quick with whatever it was he had to say, but at the same time he didn't want to leave this place just yet. Still, Allen, his best friend and quite possibly the only one who could actually understand what he was feeling at the moment, wanted his help and felt it was urgent enough to take him out of his misery for a while. He wasn't about to refuse a friend ever again, he'd done that too many times already.

"Better make this quick..." Lavi mumbled as he slowly stood up, and followed Allen out of the dark room. Neither of them were working at the moment, and so were allowed to leave their house. They continued to walk and walk, Lavi just following Allen until the younger boy decided they were a safe distance away from the whorehouse.

Allen fished in his pocket for something for a moment, before taking out a silver chain and hanging it in front of Lavi's face. The redhead took it and examined it, before glaring up at Allen; What was so special about a pet collar that warranted Allen disturbing him?

"What the hell is this about, Allen?" Lavi asked, cutting straight to the point before he got any angrier.

"Oh, nothing really, just a pet collar with all the information the police need to apprehend the man who murdered Yuu yesterday," Allen said, as casually as if he were talking about the weather. Lavi's eye widened, and suddenly his full attention was on Allen, and his rage was directed at the name on the collar, and the man whom it belonged to.

"Are you shitting me Allen? Why the hell didn't you give this to the police yesterday when they interrogated us?!" Lavi demanded, looking down at Allen, making it a point to show how much taller he was.

"Two reasons: One, because I figured that was something you would want to do yourself. Two, because I have plans for this thing and for the Blind Man. I need you to help me with this, if I want it to work though," Allen confided, his voice lowering as they continued to walk.

"What kind of plans?"

"Right now, we're going to have a copy made of this collar. I'm going to keep the copy, and you'll keep the original. Don't give it to the police just yet though," Allen said, seeing the look in Lavi's eye that said that would be the first thing he did if Allen didn't advise against it. "It is of the highest importance that you keep it, my life depends on you keeping that thing hidden and safe." At this Lavi's blood ran cold; Allen was going to put his life in Lavi's hands? He wouldn't be able to stand it if he did something wrong. He was about ready to give the damned thing back but Allen said: "Please, you're the only one whom I can trust to do this right."

"What are you planning, Allen?" Lavi asked, suddenly feeling much older than his 18 years.

"You'll know if it works, but otherwise knowing will just get you in trouble. Either way, I want you to keep that collar safe. If I am killed or if I disappear without telling you I'm leaving, give it to the police." Lavi's visible eye widened, if he was killed? If he disappeared? What was Allen going to do?

"You're...going to do something with that murderer, aren't you? I don't understand, if you think you might die anyway, then why on earth would you think me having this would save you?" Lavi asked, incredulity radiating from him. He didn't want to lose someone else, not another friend.

"Well, I don't quite think the murder wants to get caught, you know? I figure that when I go to confront him, that if I let him know that the evidence of his crime is somewhere he can't get it, and that whether or not it falls into the hands of the police depends on my being alive, then he won't kill me. Why would he, if he knew someone was going to give that collar to the police the moment my body was discovered?"

Lavi agreed that chances were the murderer wouldn't try to kill Allen if he knew that, however now this plan was putting Lavi in danger as well. He couldn't go along with this, not when he didn't know why Allen was doing this in the first place.

"Allen, I will not do anything but run to the police with this collar right now if you don't tell me what you're up to," Lavi said, his voice warning. Allen looked rather alarmed by this, but after a moment sighed.

"I'm going to get out of here, Lavi. I'm going to get us both out of here, using that man. I've done some research on him, he's a pediatrician at the local hospital, he makes a good amount of money, and aside from the murders he lives a rather clean life. He's not involved with drugs or whores, or any of the businesses that the Earl has his hands in. He'd be able to get away with helping me, and eventually you, leave the city because he's uninvolved with all of this. I'll leave the city with his help, set up a place for us somewhere, and then send for you. I want to get us both out of here Lavi...I can't stand to live this way forever."

Lavi looked down, understanding what the younger boy was saying perfectly. Neither of them chose this, neither of them could stand to live so filthily forever. Both of them, along with Yuu, had tried to repeatedly escape from that damned house of prostitution and had been punished for it in turn. Anyone who tried to help them was quickly done away with.

"...fine Allen, I'll hold onto this damned thing for you, but if you at least don't make it out of this hell hole, I'm never going to forgive you," Lavi said, grudgingly. Allen's face lit up, and he hugged Lavi.

"Thank you...! I swear I'll get you, both of us, out of here!" The boy promised happily, before turning into a little shop to his right.

000

Tyki groaned silently to himself. His last murder had been committed two days ago, and he was just waiting for the boy who'd seen his face so clearly to report him to the police. It was over, he'd murdered and now he was going to pay for it. Why he hadn't been taken away yet was beyond him.

He was currently sitting on the steps by the playground that was connected to the hospital's daycare center. When he got off of work, he liked to come down to the daycare center and help out because they were understaffed. He'd always gotten along well with kids. To him, they were the only pure things on this earth, not yet contaminated with its filth. He hoped that none of the children he knew ever became dirty.

"Mr. Mikk, oh Mr. Mikk! Tyki! Good grief you've been so out of it since yesterday." Tyki shook such thoughts from his head, when he realized the Director of the hospital's daycare center, Komui, had been speaking to him. He looked up and saw that the Chinese man was holding three children by the collars of their shirts. Each was covered in scrapes and bruises.

"What happened this time?" He asked, looking between the little girl with her short spiky hair, Rhode, and the two oddly dressed twins who barely looked alike, Jasdevi (as they liked to be called).

"Rhode did it again! Sheesh! The way she beats up these boys, you'd think she was one of them herself," Komui said with an exasperated (if not somewhat amused) sigh. "Would you mind looking at their injuries?"

Tyki nodded and brought over the little black-haired boy, David, first, because he was always the one Rhode managed to do the most damage to, for he was always protecting Jasdero.

"What did you two say this time...?" Tyki asked, with a "you really are getting too old for this" tone of voice.

"They told me I was an unwanted child," Rhode piped up in the twins' stead, "So I decided to show them just how much I didn't want _them_ around," she finished with a huff.

Tyki sighed and took on a reprimanding tone. "Look, you two, just because something has happened in her life that hasn't in yours doesn't mean you have any right to feel superior. You have no right to pick on her, just because of her circumstances."

"Gee, Mikkie, no need to make me into such a charity case," the little girl drawled, rolling her eyes. "I'm fine anyway, I don't need any fixing up," she said, before flouncing away. Komui sighed and scratched his cheek.

"Goodness, little girls sure are sensitive..." the Director mused. Tyki shook his head as he deemed David taken care of and pulled Jasdero up next.

"No, I just wasn't being sensitive enough. I was just like her when I was her age, a foster child who was bounced from house to house after my mother died. Of course, I suppose you know that same pain fairly well, hm, Lee?" Komui looked surprised at the news, but nodded. Jasdero was released and both twins were told to never call anyone unwanted again, before they were allowed to go back and play.

"I didn't know you'd been a foster child, Tyki," Komui said, sounding a little surprised, though his face was mostly apologetic.

"Well, it's not all that important now. And there's no need for that pitying look, Lee, and I wouldn't give Rhode that look either, or she'll kick your shins... She's a good girl, really, a little devil, but good..." Tyki started, in defense of the brutish girl, "She lives near me and comes over a lot to play with Wolfie."

"Wolfie? You got a dog, or something...?"

"It's a bit more unusual than a dog," Tyki said, but he halted his response when he felt a sudden weight on his back that was slowly spreading over his shoulders, until at last two arms came into his view from behind him, one of them dangling a silver chain in front of his face.

"Would this happen to be the good pet's tag? There's a name and an address to return the pet to if it ever gets lost," came a light, young voice from behind him. It was clear as a bell, and just deep enough to let Tyki know it was a man behind him. He turned around and tried not to let his surprise show on his face. It was the boy from the alley! The one that had seen his face! And...when had he gotten that tag? Good lord, it couldn't have been that Tyki had lost the thing in the alley...! He was done for, completely done for!

The white-haired boy backed away from him, and read off the tag. "Wolfgang Mikk. Nice name, but who names a pet that?" The boy asked, with a questioning, and yet utterly teasing look on his face. The boy closed the name tag in his fist, as Komui went over to talk to the boy.

"So are you a friend of Tyki's? Geez you're skinny! That can't be healthy," he commented off-handedly. The boy nodded, smiling just a bit awkwardly.

'_Goodness no! He's going to spill it all if I just let him keep talking!'_

"Yes, I do suppose I could use a little meat on my bones, but my budget doesn't allow for more that the bare necessities," the boy said to Komui, before turning to address Tyki. "It's been a while since I've seen you, brother, would you be so kind as to meet me tonight?" The boy asked, to which Komui gasped.

"What? Tyki you never mentioned having a little brother! And you don't look a thing alike," Komui said, trying hard to find similarities between them.

"We're not related by blood, we both just lived in the same foster home for a long time. My name is Allen, by the way," the boy, now properly identified as Allen, said. Tyki wondered why this boy knew where he worked, he doubted that could be tracked by his phone number or address. Then again, he supposed it wouldn't have been hard for the boy to follow him to work from home. Dammit, this kid...

Allen took the collar and clipped it around his own neck. "What do you think? Rather suits me, I'd say." What did this kid want from him? And why wasn't he demanding it yet? Allen took out a folded piece of paper and stuck it in Tyki's front pocket, before kissing him on the cheek like any close brother might. "Meet me at that place tonight, and I'll give your chain back," the boy whispered, before backing away from Tyki. With a final wave goodbye, the boy turned and ran out of sight.

'_What was that kid thinking? He knows who I am and yet he wants to meet me again?'_

000

Later that night, around seven, Tyki walked up to a club, whose business card he'd been given by Allen. His skin crawled, he hated these places, filled with filthy people making a filthy living. When he saw that the door only had a rectangular peep hole in it, he straightened himself up, and tried to look confident, and like he belonged here when he so obviously didn't. He fingered the business card nervously in his pocket.

He knocked at the door, and the peep hole was opened, then immediately shut. "You don't belong here," A gravely voice told him from the other side.

"I do. I was told by Allen to come here," Tyki replied, trying to sound as though he knew Allen and was a long-time friend of his. He took out the business card given to him as proof of their earlier exchange. The peep hole was opened again, and once the man saw the card, let Tyki in.

"This way sir, you'll find Allen on the top floor, in the blue room," the man said, before closing the door behind him. Tyki did his best not to look around as he passed through the club. It was disgusting, all the lowest forms of human life were in this place. Alcoholics, druggies, prostitutes of both genders, how sickening. He kept his eyes ahead as he ascended the stairs until he finally reached the top.

This floor was rather empty, with nothing but closed doors to his left and right. He had a sneaking suspicion that he didn't want to know what was happening behind those doors. He found the blue door that obviously led to the blue room, and stood outside it, unsure of whether or not he should really enter. Then he heard a yell from the other side, and his concern drove him to open the door and enter.

What he saw however, repulsed him much more than he could ever say. That yell hadn't been a cry of pain, no, no, it had been the total opposite. On the room's bed laid a rather sated looking man with a younger boy settled between his legs. The boy sat up straight, making his silvery hair visible. Allen brought his arm up to his face and Tyki could only assume he was wiping his face clean.

Then the child looked over to him, and with lips still burning red and gleaming, said: "Took you long enough to get here." Allen, half dressed, rose off the bed and walked over to the door, not paying any mind to his infuriated customer as he did so. He grabbed a coat that hung off the inner door handle, and shoved Tyki out of the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

He led the stunned man down the hall, and into what seemed to be a bathroom. "This place is better than the bedrooms. The Earl has recorders under the beds, because he doesn't want anyone planning to escape without his knowledge. You wouldn't want anyone to hear this, now would you?" Allen asked, as he sat down and made himself comfortable on the sink.

Finally Tyki found his voice. "You're a whore. This is disgusting! You're only a child really, and yet you're working _here,_of all places. Wouldn't you rather go to school or do something productive? You're just dirtying yourself here!" Tyki said with an affronted voice, his facial expression screwed up into one of distaste.

"You're acting like I chose all of this, sir. Let me assure you I did not. And while we're on the subject of my filthy life, why don't I ask you what gives you the right to judge it? Your hands are stained with the blood of people whom I've known and found friendship in. You murder young prostitutes while pretending to be a pediatrician. Don't you think you're just as dirty as me?"

"Shut up!" Tyki said in a near-shout, glaring holes through Allen. "What the hell do you want from me, is it money? That's what all of you people want anyway. Just take your damned filthy money and give me that tag back," Tyki said through gritted teeth, as he pulled out his wallet and emptied its contents out on the floor. Bill after bill fell out onto the floor and flew about the room.

For a moment, Allen's face looked pained, as though he had just been deeply wounded. A moment later his eyes took on a glassy, dead appearance. Tyki shook off the bad feeling he got (was it guilt? Concern? Or something else?) And moved over to Allen. "Just give it back kid, you don't need to be involved in my business."

Allen grabbed the chain around his neck and broke it off, letting the pieces fall to the floor. "Go ahead, have it, but I should tell you, that's only a copy of the original. The real one is with my friend, and if I'm killed or disappear, he'll turn it over to the police." Allen's face was calm and emotionless, the same way it had been the night they'd first met.

"What the hell do you want from me kid? All the money I have right now is at your feet, and even I have more pride than to be the slave of some damned_ whore_." Once again Allen gave that pained look, as if Tyki's words were cutting him like a knife. He looked up at Tyki with determined eyes, and for a moment, _he_ was the one that felt as though he were being pierced through. Why did those clear eyes seem to see right through him?

"You're completely wrong. I don't want your money and I don't want a damned _murderer_ as a slave. What I want is...I want to be free. I want to get out of this hellish place and take a friend with me, and I want you to help."

Tyki gave him a questioning glare, before snapping: "Then get yourself out of here, don't drag me into your world."

Now it was Allen's turn to snap. Who did this man, this _murderer_, think he was? To judge him as some lower being just because he sold his body for a high price?

"You think I haven't tried? I hate to break it to you, but if I could get out of here myself I would, instead of enlisting the help of a dirty killer! Don't you think I've tried to get out of here? Of course I have! I'm not here because I want to be! I'm here because my parents died and left me to the leader of this prostitution ring because they owed him a _debt._ I've tried to run away so many damned times, but..."

Allen slid his sleeve up his arm, revealing a cross-shaped tattoo on the back of his left hand, and brushed the hair off his face, showing a scar. "Everywhere I go, people see my brand, they see my scars and they know I'm the property of the Millennium Earl. On all outward surfaces, he seems like your average politician, but he's really got complete control over all drug dealers and prostitutes in this city. No one would ever help me because they want to live. I've been brought back and beaten to near-death more times than I can count!

"You act so high and mighty, like your something better than me! You act like I chose this life, and I bet you think we all just chose to be here! Well guess what? The boy you murdered last night had been kidnapped and brought here, he'd been walking around his hometown and was just _taken_. He was one of my friends, and was the other witness' lover. My best friend had to go into that alley and find his _lover's corpse._ Such a dandy little present you left him, huh?" Allen was enraged by the look of shock on Tyki's face. "What? Did you not think we were human enough to love and cry? Did you really think we would choose this shameless existence? Stop acting as though we all made a choice to be here!"

Tyki felt rather humbled by this little lecture. Still, it did not change the fact that this boy was blackmailing him and that if he didn't get that piece of metal back, he was going to either be arrested, or manipulated all of his life.

"...Look, boy, I can't help you. I don't want to be involved with this. Find someone else to help you, because I can't see why you'd think I could do a thing for you." Allen's eyes were lowered, he was clearly disappointed in Tyki, why he'd gotten his hopes up he couldn't say. Finally, he spoke.

"...Fine, you coward. I'll bring the tag over to your house tomorrow. Now get out of here before someone realizes you're not a customer." Allen didn't want to be in this man's presence any longer, and glared at the man until he left. Allen slid off the counter, and onto the floor, putting his face in his hands.

"What the hell am I doing, anyway? Why am I doing this when I have all the leverage? God, I'm a blasted idiot." Laughter slipped through Allen's lips, it sounded slightly hysterical. Without warning he felt tears rolling down his cheeks, wetting his palms. "A damned fool..."

000

Tyki sighed with relief when he finally reached his house. He felt as though Allen's all-seeing summer storm eyes had been following him the whole way.

'_I can't handle this kid. I don't want to deal with someone like him.'_ He thought with worry and wariness. _'I'll just have to kill him, it's what I'd do anyway.' _At that moment his pet lizard, Wolfie, walked into the room to greet him. Its eyes looked him up and down, and Tyki tried not to feel too sick when he realized that the emotionless eyes of his pet seemed to match Allen's.

'_He'll be here tomorrow...He'll just walk right to his death and out of my life.'_

**Ah...yeah. These two aren't really IC at the moment as this did end up rather close with the original, though there are plenty of scenes that Saya made and put in herself. It's kinda like how every fandom has its own butchered version of ****Romeo and Juliet****, except this is a (hopefully) not-so-butchered version of "Boys Next Door". In any case, Saya hopes that now that they're past this first situation, they can get a big more IC. **


	2. Their Circumstances

**Here's chapter two! Saya hopes to finish this story quickly, as a start-of-summer treat of sorts. She's working on it exclusively at the moment, to get her mind off her usual stories because she's not doing her best with those. So, hopefully this little break and writing exercise will get Saya back into shape! And quickly, this is key. **

**Disclaimer: Saya doesn't own DGM or "Boys Next Door". They belong to Katsura Hoshino and Kaori Yuki, respectively.**

**Rating: M for pedophilia, prostitution, nondescript sex, killing, violence, etc.**

2. Their Circumstances

"Hey Allen, did you hear? Even though it's been three days since Yuu was killed, the Earl has only just been made aware of it. He'd damned furious about it too. It pisses me off to know that the first this he said when he heard the news was that he was angry he'd lost such a _best seller_," Lavi said, as he ranted on indignantly, and Allen listened patiently as he covered up a few marks he'd gotten the night before. He was down, much less hopeful than the day before. Allen was still wondering what the hell he'd been thinking when he said he would give the collar back. He wanted something, didn't he? So why was he giving up his only advantage, his only hope to get it?

"Hey, Allen, are you even listening?" Lavi asked, giving the boy a questioning and strangely concerned glance.

"Of course I am. You know how much it burns me up, knowing that man thinks of us as nothing but tools he can use to make a profit," Allen replied, with as much enthusiasm for the subject as he could muster at the moment. They'd had this conversation before, but usually there was a third party who liked to comment about the subject with an exasperated voice. Unlike Lavi and himself, Kanda had been resigned to his fate before he'd even reached the brothel, and just thought of it as a pointless subject to dwell on. That didn't stop him from joining in with them when they made plans to escape though. The memories of times spent with his now-deceased friend only served to make his pain worsen.

"But isn't he your uncle?" Lavi asked, he had always wondered about that. What unfeeling creature would employ their own nephew in this sort of place? He'd never asked though, because it was undoubtably a sore topic. Now though, he wanted to know about everything, before he lost the chance to ask questions. Yuu's death had put so much in perspective for him.

"Yeah, but what difference does it make? I'm here because my parents wracked up a debt with him, and since they off and died, I've got to pay it off," Allen said bitterly, snarling at the memory of his first day in this hellish place. "I'd always known something was off with him, from the first day I'd met him," he continued to mutter, thinking of how his parents had actually trusted this man, and how the Earl had smiled right to their faces and told them they would never have to repay a single cent they had borrowed.

"Um...anyway, besides that... Lavi, I need the collar back," Allen said, waiting for the worst. He hardly expected Lavi to just hand it back without an explanation.

"Why? Aren't you going to see that damned murderer again today? Shouldn't I keep a hold of it to make sure you aren't killed?" Lavi asked, worry in his voice. Just what was Allen going to do now?

The snowy-haired boy lowered his head, seemingly ashamed of himself. "I was being nothing but foolish the other day... No one, not that man nor anyone else, could get us out of here... No one _wants_ us out of here. It's better to just keep the scum in its pond."

"Allen!" Lavi stood up from where he'd been seated on the bathroom sink and promptly slapped Allen. The boy blinked owlishly at him for a moment, before looking away, covering the side of his face that he could feel was getting hot with pain. "Since when have you ever believed we were just scum? What the hell did that asshole say to you to make you believe we were?! The Allen I've always known would never think to call himself or his friends that!" Lavi took a shaky breath before continuing. "I...I've lost one important person to that guy's twisted ideology, I'm not about to lose you to it too."

Allen kept his gaze averted, ashamed for having thought that for even a second. What was he doing? What was he thinking? Why, why was he giving up? The more Lavi said, the more ashamed of himself he felt.

"You thought of this idea, all the cards are in your favor Allen, and you, the infamous card shark of the Millennium Earl's gambling ring, are afraid to take a gamble on this guy just 'cause he's warped and refused you the first time?"

"I-I get it, ok Lavi? I get it! I just...I don't know what I'm doing any more...don't think I knew from the very start. I was just getting my hopes up." Lavi scowled at this behavior, and forced Allen's chin up, making his young friend look up at him.

"You knew what you were doing, you've just lost your resolve. So until you find it again, I'm keeping this little piece of scrap metal right on my ear." Lavi motioned to the tag that had once been on the collar, he'd taken it off and placed it on the little loop earing he always wore. The actual chain it had been on had been attached to the copy and broke when Allen had tugged it off. "I'm going to stick to your original plan, so you go to that guy, and tell him we're not giving up until we're out of this city."

Allen looked up at Lavi, not sure whether he should be grateful to have such a determined friend, or if he should worry that Lavi was going to get him killed. Finally, he decided to think positively for once and smiled up at his friend.

"Thank you Lavi, really. Well then, I have an appointment to make, now don't I?" Allen asked rhetorically, as he moved away from the sink's mirror and to the door.

"Yup, show that guy who's in charge here!" Lavi cheered as his friend left. The moment the door closed, Lavi silently prayed that he hadn't just sent Allen to his death.

000

"Oh wow, just look at that new candy store! Bring me there, please Mikkie!" Rhode pulled Tyki along the street, pointing ahead of her to a rather colorful store that had just recently opened. He sighed as he was dragged into the sweets shop after her, for he didn't like candy all that much himself and his pockets felt horribly empty today.

'_I definitely gave all of my money to that boy yesterday...God, I just hopes that today is the last time I'll have to deal with him.'_

Tyki felt his teeth ache as he watched Rhode pick more and more candy off of the walls, he felt bad for her dentist. As they walked through the store, he wondered if it would be strange for him to pay for a pile of candy with a check. Well, it depended on just how much she bought, he supposed, she seemed to be taking one of everything from the store. Most would consider the assumption that he would just pay for all of this a bit rude on Rhode's part, but she was used to Tyki spoiling her as though she were his favorite niece or something like that.

As they neared the counter, Tyki knew that it would not seem at all strange to anyone if he didn't use cash for such a purchase, as it seemed to him that Rhode intended to buy half of the store. He sighed yet again and fished around in his pockets for his wallet, which held his checkbook. Before he could pull it out of his pocket though, a tattooed hand placed a rather large wad of money on the counter before him.

"Just use this, it's your money after all," came the clear, familiar voice that he hadn't expected to hear so early in the day. Tyki turned to see Allen looking at him with the same blank expression he always seemed to see on the kid when he first looked at him. Allen quickly turned to smile at the grand-fatherly man behind the counter. "Do you think this will be enough for a mountain that high, though?" He asked, quickly retracting his hand from the counter before anyone besides Tyki had the chance to see his brand. The man picked up the bills and counted through them, saying that there would probably be extra. Tyki thanked God that this place seemed to have relatively low prices, and waited patiently for the goods to be rung up.

Once out of the shop, Rhode turned to Tyki, while putting a lollipop in her mouth. "So, who's the albino kid?" She asked, pointing to Allen. Allen flushed a bit, muttering something about just being pale.

"I'm Allen, Tyki's brother," the boy answered in a much kinder tone once he had stopped mumbling. She raised an eyebrow at him, before looking to Tyki, and then back at him.

"You look nothing alike," she observed, giving him a face that said she obviously didn't buy it.

"I'm his foster brother. When my parents died and I got sent to my foster home, he was the only one who was kind to me, and helped me get used to living there. He was just like a real big brother to me, but then he left for bigger and better things and just never came back. It took me a while, but I found him, didn't I?" Allen seemed to be staring off into space as he said all of this, as though he were remembering a story from long ago and reciting it for the girl.

'_Is this story true? Maybe he really has a brother, and he's just improvising here with that story?'_ Tyki shrugged off the thought, it wasn't his place to care. He was going to kill the boy the moment he had the collar back in his hands, he needn't concern himself with his life, he had no reason to feel sympathy for the marked boy.

Allen and Tyki walked with Rhode until they reached her house, where she pushed all of the candy onto Tyki, saying: "You hold onto it for me Mikkie, my parents might get annoyed if they see all of that candy; they're dentists." Tyki thought it was a bit ironic that this girl's foster parents had a daughter with such a sweet tooth.

Tyki gave Rhode an indulging smile as he took the bags of candy from her. "Just come on by whenever you want a bit of it, then," he said, thinking that Wolfie would enjoy seeing her more often. After he had seen Rhode safely enter her house, he left for his own with Allen walking silently at his side. They entered his house in silence too, which was finally broken when Wolfie came to greet them at the door.

"Er...is that...?" Allen gave Tyki a questioning look, to which he nodded.

"That's Wolfie, yes. Got a problem with my pet?"

"Um...no," Allen said, sounding a bit awkward. "It's just that with a name like that, I'd expected a dog, like a German Shepard or an excessively aggressive Chihuahua or something more...canine." Allen gestured vaguely with his hands, as if to help convey his message. Tyki just rolled his eyes and walked into his kitchen, placing the candy up on a high, out-of-the-way shelf. Allen followed, and stood near the doorway of the room.

Allen looked at the bags that were still on the table, and mused aloud: "You seem like you must really love kids, I guess that's why you're a pediatrician, huh? I used to think you just worked afternoons at the daycare, you were always so nice to the kids there." Allen turned his face from the kitchen when Tyki turned to get the last bag, and consequently turned it from view. His cheeks were tinted with a bit of pink.

'_So...he's seen me before? What the hell am I supposed to say to something like that, anyway?'_

"You always looked sad though, like even though you cared for the children you could never really open up to them... Like you had a secret you couldn't share. I couldn't forget that sad smile and I always wanted to know what was troubling you... Guess I know now, huh?" Allen gave a sad smile of his own, tinged with irony. Now that he knew, he probably wish he didn't, Tyki thought, because he certainly wouldn't want to know that someone he'd been watching murdered people of his own profession. And Tyki decided that the boy had to have been watching him, to know so much about him. It was a rather frightening thought, really.

Allen moved away from the doorframe, and headed back into the sitting room, taking a seat on the sofa without being invited to. Tyki raised an eyebrow, but followed suit and sat on a nearby recliner.

"I said a lot earlier, guess I don't really need to say it but...well, that story was sort of true. The "brother" I talked about was actually my best friend, and it wasn't just one person, it was two. They were both a bit older than I and had been around that house longer. One was really kind to me, and when everyone else was cold toward me, or indifferent, he was kind and comforted me. The other was his close friend, who was at first very mean and abrasive, but I learned that really he was just kind in a rather unconventional way. They helped me get used to everything..."

"And so your "foster home" was...?" Tyki couldn't help but ask. He felt drawn into the melancholy boy's story, for reasons he couldn't explain. He was supposed to be killing this boy, not listening to his life story, but at the same time he just couldn't pretend not to hear.

"Yes, it was that whorehouse... My uncle runs the place, and has been using me to pay off my parents' debt ever since they died and left me to him. They weren't bad people, and they cared about me very much, but they just didn't know that he was the king of the underground, they were too decent to know about that world and who's in charge of it. Still, I've been paying for their ignorance for years and am starting to resent them for it. Oh, right, speaking of pay, here's what's left of the money you left behind yesterday, the store clerk gave it back to me instead of you," Allen said, and held the money out to Tyki. Realizing that the older man seemed too stunned by either the story or the action itself, he decided to leave it on the coffee table between them.

Tyki could not seem to find the murderer in him, at this point. He was supposed to murder this child but now... Goodness, how young had Allen been when he was forced into that dirty line of work? He hadn't chosen it himself, he hadn't known it would happen to him at all! And worse yet, this had all been forced on him just after the shock of his parents' deaths? Could he really kill this boy with a clear conscience? Was it really ok to kill Allen?

Was it ok if maybe...he didn't?

The attack was quite sudden. Allen was, for reasons currently unknown to Tyki, upon him and kissing him. Tyki was stunned and felt rather witless at the moment. What was going on? Something like fear churned his stomach as he was forced onto his back and the boy crawled over him.

"This is revenge! Revenge for what you said yesterday, and for my poor 'brother' whom you killed three days ago, while working under the impression that he'd chosen his life!" Well, Tyki understood now and that made the attack seem a little less random, which lessened the fear. He was still stunned though, and that didn't change even as Allen started working his belt out of its buckle.

"I hate the way you acted yesterday, the way you're still acting today! Like you're shocked to find that I have the capacity to care about anything other than money! You call me disgusting and you want nothing more than to get me out of your clean little life, and I hate that! I've heard worse before but it hurts to hear you say that!" Tyki only grew more shocked as the boy went on, and hardly registered that Allen was hastily unbuttoning his shirt. He felt trapped, pinned like a butterfly to a wall. Allen's eyes were so determined, angry, the gray and blue tones seemed to swirl around chaotically like a sea storm.

"I hate it too! I think it's just as disgusting! But what can I do? Nothing! I can't run or refuse it, I've just got to live with it! Who would want to live this way? Night after night, a different face every time! Just putting on a false smile and making someone's dream come true for one night because they've given up on finding the real thing. I hate it! I want to get away from it! But what can I do?" And suddenly, rage gave way to despair, and Tyki was no longer being pinned to the spot by those confused eyes, because they were hidden from view. His forehead rested on Tyki's now bare chest, as though he couldn't find the strength to look forward just yet. Then, just as he felt something warm and wet fall onto him, Allen licked it away, refusing to leave anything behind that would show he'd let a tear slip down his cheek.

"What can I do? If you know then please tell me, because I'm fresh out of ideas." Tyki came back to himself more and more as he felt lips fall on his bare skin over and over. He grabbed the boy's shoulders and pushed him away, not wanting to be so close to him. He looked to the side, not feeling capable of looking the boy in the face.

"Look boy, I'm just going to kill you one of these days, so there's no point in asking me for answers." Allen looked down at him, and his sadness evaporated. Once again, his eyes were just emotionless wells of silver, and Tyki wished he would just choose an emotion and stick to it, he wished the boy would just be angry or upset or anything but blank like that!

"Fine then, kill me. Maybe that's the only answer anyway, maybe none of us can really escape as long as we exist in this world..." Allen pondered aloud as he stared into Tyki's eyes, once again trapping him with that piercing gaze. "Be the last person to see me alive, and keep my memory buried in your subconscious for the rest of your life. Keep me all to yourself and never tell a soul." Allen kissed him once again, with much less force than he had the first time. Tyki felt a silent call to connect, and without thinking, responded to it.

000

"_Mother, who was that man?" He asked once the strange man had left their house. Even after he had repeated the question to her, she did not answer. Instead, she counted through a roll of bills the man had given her. Tyki wished that man hadn't given it to her, and he wished she wouldn't take it. It seemed so wrong. He had seen what she did with men once, but he didn't understand that either. He figured that when he grew up he would know, and at the moment, it all felt sick and wrong. It gave him the worst feeling. _

"_We're going to see your mother Tyki, we're going to the carnival," she suddenly announced after she had finished counting. He didn't understand that either. She was his mother, he was seeing here right now. How could a carnival be his mother? She looked at him and smiled. She looked at him! She looked at him! He should've been happier, but instead a knot of uneasiness twisted his stomach. She'd never looked at him before, no matter how hard he tried to get her attention. He did his best to get her to love him, he did his worst to get her to hate him, to_ feel___something for him! __She never had before though, so why was she looking at him now?_

_The carnival that she had talked about was very far away, or at least it seemed that way to Tyki, who had rarely been out of his own house. Even so, he had fun there. He rode on the Ferris wheel and ate cotton candy, played games and even managed to forget that this wasn't normal, not for him anyway. _

_His mother didn't watch. She didn't even look at him_ _as he ran around, having as much fun as he could. Then, she saw, or perhaps heard, something and alerted Tyki to it. _

_"Do you hear it? The music playing? Shall we go listen to it? They're playing near the jester, see? Go on, look," She said, pointing to the jester, who was surrounded by happy children who were listening to his jokes and laughing. Tyki joined them, and though he couldn't get all the way to the front, he got close. The jester sang cheery little songs to the music that was played, he sang a song for everyone who asked him to. Tyki raised his hand and hoped to be included, but even as the crowd thinned out, he was never chosen. He was starting to wonder if maybe he was invisible, maybe that was why his mother never looked at him, and no one seemed to realize he existed. _

_He left the jester as the rest of the crowd did, and looked for his mother. Where was she? He couldn't find her! He ran through the carnival, hoping to see his mother, but found no one familiar. It soon got dark, and while the carnival looked splendid with all of its colorful lights, he couldn't enjoy it while he felt so alone like this. Finally, he gave up on finding her there, and left the carnival, hoping he could at least find his way home. _

_It took days, and on more than one occasion the police almost took him. But he kept running and escaping them, hoping beyond hope that when he reached home his mother would worry over him and tell him not to scare her like that ever again. He hoped that went he returned she would love him._

_He was hoping for the impossible, it seemed. When he finally made it back home, he didn't even get through the door before he heard a crash, and yelling. Deciding it would be safer to stay outside, Tyki took to one of the windows, and watched as his mother's death unfolded before his very eyes. _

"_It's the truth! Tyki is not your son! That year when I went to the carnival I was raped by a man dressed as a jester! I had the damned child, and then I left him back where he belongs!" _

"_You lying whore! All this time..! I bet that man who just called was someone you've taken money from before, wasn't he?" _

"_OF COURSE! Are you fool enough to think you're the only one? Of course I have others, and they're all much more of a help than you are!" _

"_Filthy slut..!" The man that Tyki had seen most often around the house, whom he'd come to know as father, took up a dagger and stabbed his mother with it, before throwing the blade to the floor and running from the scene. Tyki then entered the house through the open door, terrified. At first, his mother was shocked, but soon started glaring at him and telling him to call for help. _

"_Call the hospital...I'll take you back to the carnival once I'm better again, ok? Tyki..." The carnival...that twisted carnival... He didn't want to go back there ever again, not with her! He took up the blade and walked over to his mother. Her face was horror-stricken as she watched him lift the blade. _

"_I won't let you leave me there again," he said, before plunging the dagger through her heart. _

_And then it hit him, he had just killed his mother. He felt sick and wasn't sure what to do with himself. So, he slipped into automatic mode and took care of himself. Still, even as he ate and tidied up, he couldn't get the feeling of his mother's eyes off of him. They were still open, locked in a perpetual glare. _

'_Don't look at me... you never looked at me before, so why should you start now?' Tyki thought, and he scavenged the house for something he could use to cover her eyes. He found some masking tape and wrapped it around her head carefully, making sure that every piece covered her eyes. But it wasn't enough, there were pictures all over the walls and the ground, things he'd drawn and little photos were everywhere. He took the tape and covered all the eyes in every photo, until he ran out and had to get out his markers to finish off the pictures he'd drawn. _

_It took five days for anyone to find him in that house. As a small child who had just witnessed his mother's death, no one suspected him of any wrong-doing, and he was shipped off to a foster home, with everyone's sympathy and well-wishes._

000

"I decided to become a pediatrician so that I could help take care of children, and that's also why I spend my afternoons volunteering at the day care center, so that I know none of those children feel invisible," Tyki finished his story with a little sigh, wondering why he'd even bothered to tell it in the first place. Allen, who was laying on top of him on the narrow couch, had lent a very sympathetic ear. Hell the kid was almost crying over his story, and Tyki wondered if the boy was really all right in the head. Crying over a murderer's story, feeling sympathy and pity for the one who'd killed his friend, his surrogate brother, before his eyes! What on earth was this boy? Was he a saint, or just insane?

"I see, because of the way your mother was, and how much you hated it... you've kind of taken up a vendetta against people who sell themselves the way she did. But...she was a woman, why have you only killed men?" Allen asked in a quiet murmur against the older man's chest. Tyki looked surprised by the question. He'd never wondered that, but now that he thought about it, he really had no idea why it was always boys he killed.

"I...I'm not sure...I just know that night comes and I change. I go out, seek their company and then kill them... They suddenly just repulse me so much... I don't know why. They're dirty, like she was, and they look at me with those filthy eyes and I just have to shut them for good! I can't stop killing them because I'll go crazy if I know I haven't taken those filthy eyes off of me!" Tyki felt his control slipping, he felt himself going into that dangerous state of his. "People like that...people who just sell themselves and will do anything for the sake of money...such a pathetic existence is better off just being erased! The world doesn't need people who would just throw away their pride and morals, they're better off that way!"

Allen's eyes were suddenly on Tyki's face again, breaking through to his soul. Tyki was brought back to his senses quickly, as Allen's hand moved toward him. He was half-expecting the boy to slap him, now that he realized what he'd been saying. Instead though, the approaching hand rested on his cheek, cupping it gently.

"You poor thing, this entire time you haven't been killing your mother, and you haven't been killing prostitutes at all, have you?" Tyki gave Allen a questioning look, because he was pretty sure that those were the exact victims that he had indeed killed. Allen continued on, with an expression that made it clear he seemed to understand something Tyki didn't.

"_You've_ been your own biggest victim," Allen said, clearing up Tyki's own misunderstanding. The boy pulled himself up, wrapped his arms around Tyki's shoulders and kissed him lightly, before pulling away just a little, and letting his forehead rest against Tyki's. They were eye-to-eye now, and Tyki was too mesmerized to look away. "It's ok," he murmured against Tyki's lips, quietly, as though nothing else that existed in the world had any right to hear him but the man in his arms. "It's all right now. I'll forgive you, so you never have to kill yourself or anyone else again...I'll forgive you, so please forgive yourself."

Tyki held the boy as though he were the only thing keeping him connected to this world. "You're crazy, you know?" Tyki said, shaking his head in the crook of Allen's neck. "Crazy as all hell. Who in their right mind would look at me like that, and say it was perfectly fine?"

'_Who would look at me the way you do, so differently from everyone else?'_

"Maybe I am a bit crazy...but I think I'd like that. We can both be crazy together, how does that sound?" Tyki nodded, and Allen gently ran a hand over his tangled hair, soothing him. He felt like a child, being held like this by Allen, and holding onto the other so tightly. Eventually Allen moved back down again, once again resting his head on Tyki's chest. They fell asleep in the quiet comfort of each other's embraces.

000

The next morning Allen awoke to the feeling of something dry and smooth, and slightly cold sliding past his fingers. He rubbed his head as he used one arm to prop himself up on the comfortable sofa. What his hand had been touching earlier had been the lizard, Wolfie, it had been walking past his hand and had brushed by him.

As if walking past Allen had alerted it to his presence, the lizard turned to stare at his still sleepy form. Allen didn't realize that he had the creature's attention, as he was too busy trying to find Tyki. Eventually, his eyes fell to the coffee table, where a note with the words "Went to work" was left, along with a plate of waffles that were still a bit warm, which made Allen deduce that Tyki had only left rather recently, and it was therefore very early. Allen looked down from the table to find that Wolfie was still looking at him.

"So he went to work, huh...?" Allen asked, deciding that the pet would be good enough company for now. "Hm...that reminds me, I never did tell Tyki that I couldn't get his collar back. Well Mr. Wolfgang_,_ though I still think a proper name for you would've been Lizzie, I do apologize for giving your name tag to a stubborn redhead who will probably kill me for all of this later." Allen leaned over and picked up Wolfie, feeling quite foolish and more than a bit childish for talking to a lizard as though it were a person.

"I had meant to give it back, really...But well, sometimes it seems like Lavi knows what's best for me better than I do, I'll say, and leave it at that." Allen sighed happily at the thought of his friend, thinking that if he hadn't been so adamant about Allen sticking to his plan, he never would've gotten this chance. He debated whether or not he should say more to Wolfie, before deciding that he could probably be relied on not to spill his secrets. "You're really lucky, you know? He keeps you around like this, you're connected to him because he wants you. I want a connection with him too... I used to watch him at the daycare center, because I had nothing better to do really, and it was peaceful...watching children who were loved grow up...I saw his smile and I think I fell in love with it..."

000

It had been maybe a week or two since Lavi had seen Allen leave the bathroom with the plan to go confront the murderer. Since then, Kanda's room had been given to some new boy whom Lavi could not find it in himself to accept as his lover's replacement in this place. Still, he tried to be kind only because he knew no one besides he and Allen would be. Lavi had set himself at peace with Yuu's death, deciding that in the end even dying like that had to be better than living like this.

Lavi discovered though, that while he may have been at peace with the fact that Yuu was no longer with him, he hadn't forgiven the person who had taken him away.

"Please tell me you're shitting me Allen, this is one joke I'd really rather you not pull," Lavi said, with a serious tone and a wide eye. Allen shook his head no, which sparked anger in the redhead. He stomped around his room, gathering everything he could think of that could be used to perform a bloody murder. "I don't know what that guy said to you to get you to friggin' _fall_ for him, but need I remind you that he killed Yuu? My lover and one of your closest friends, Allen! It's only been a little over a week since you first talked to him, when did you have time to form feelings for him?!"

To this, Allen did not answer. He just kept his head low and waited for Lavi to say everything he wanted to say. His friend had every right to his anger, after all. Allen felt like he was betraying Lavi just as much as Lavi felt he was being betrayed.

"You know, when you said you were planning to get us out of here, I thought that was what you were doing! I didn't think it was just a convenient excuse you could use to get close to the guy and then get in his pants!" Ow. That one hurt. His increased pain must've shown on his face because the moment the redhead looked at him again, guilt consumed him and he was swooping down off his high horse to comfort the friend who had wronged him.

"I-I didn't mean it that way Allen...I know you're not like that. God I'm sorry, I don't even know what I'm saying anymore... It's just... I can't forgive people the way you've always been able to. I can't forget and just call it water under the bridge. I'll try though, ok? I'll try, so just please...don't make that face..." Allen looked up to Lavi questioning, not even realizing he was indeed making a face that begged for forgiveness and sympathy.

"I'm sorry... You have every right to be angry with me, but this isn't really anything recent, at least not for me." Lavi did his best to understand what Allen was thinking and feeling but found he did not have the information needed in order to recreate the emotions that were undoubtably swirling through his friend.

There was a moment of silence, as their minds wandered off to their own places. This led Allen back to his original purpose for being there; They really were getting out of here. Allen had felt the need to explain the whole thing from the beginning, hence why they had just gone through that last scene, but now that it was over Allen felt he could get to the point.

"Um...anyway, Lavi, there was something a bit more pressing I had been leading up to here so...May I continue?" Allen asked, though he really didn't need to, as it seemed Lavi was quite ready to do just about anything to keep Allen from looking depressed.

"Right, ah...what I was planning to say was that we've done it, Lavi, we've set up a way to get you out of the city, out of the state, actually. You can't bring anything from here with you that you can't fit in your pockets, and I'll do my best to get anything more you want to you later, but you will be leaving." Allen looked very accomplished, and Lavi looked very astonished. What did Allen mean, he was getting out of the city? And why did it seem that Allen was not included in this escape plot?

"What are you talking about Allen? If I get out of here, of course you're coming with me," Lavi said, trying to sound light-hearted about it, as if he thought Allen had just made a little mistake while speaking. Really though, he was worried, worried about leaving Allen behind here. What if the boy had resigned himself to fate, or was planning to take the punishment for helping Lavi leave? Maybe Allen just thought it would be harder to get them both out at the same time? Either way Lavi wouldn't tolerate it.

"Lavi...I wouldn't blame you for not realizing this, I mean I know you've kind of been grieving still, but um...I haven't come to work this entire week. This is the first time I've come back to the house too. I'd love to go and quit officially, but you know how people don't tend to do too well here after trying that. I'm as good as out of here myself, but you know that sooner or later the Earl is going to catch onto the fact that I haven't come back, and he's going to go looking for me. You'll be the first one they try to torture the information out of, so I figured I'd have to get you out of town and fast, before they start looking for you."

Oh. Well, yeah, Lavi hadn't noticed that. He'd been running on automatic for a while now, it seems that was all he could do when Allen wasn't around to keep him in his right mind. He'd been so stuck on just going through the motions of day-by-day living that he'd just never realized that Allen wasn't there. He felt like an asshole and a moron for not realizing that, because the two of them usually saw each other at least once a day.

"I see...but are you sure you'll be safe where you are?" Lavi asked, wondering if there was any way Allen could possibly be safe while inside the city limits. He wondered if Allen was living with the murderer now, and if that was really such a wise choice on Allen's part.

"For now I am, and we'll probably be meeting you out in Washington within a month or so." By "we", Lavi assumed Allen meant he and Tyki. Lavi hoped he would be able to get over his anger towards the man by then.

"Wait..._where_ are you sending me, exactly? Please tell me you're not sending me to some suburban town, I don't think I can live without smog in my lungs anymore, and how do you think all the rain would affect my hair color? It's hard to maintain this shade of orangey-red, you know!"

"Lavi...that's your natural hair color. And I think that fresh air would be a nice change for you. Besides, it'd be a lot safer for you there than in the middle of some city." Allen's statement seemed true enough, but Lavi was still wondering if he'd be able to handle seeing houses with lawns all over the place. It would be too...outlandish... for him, like he was suddenly on another planet.

"...I grudgingly see your point. So go on, tell me about my great escape Allen."

"I will, and pay attention because your plane leaves tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!"

"Tomorrow," Allen said with a note of finality about the whole deal. He then launched into an explanation about his plan to get Lavi out of the state. It seemed long, and a little more complicated that it needed to be, but Lavi figured it would cover his tracks well. At the end of it all, Lavi and Allen went to work making the final preparations for the next day, and Lavi made sure to thank Allen at every chance he got.

**Ah...a happy little note to end this on. It all goes downhill from here, sadly. Well, good luck with that. The last update will probably be a bit longer than this chapter, and should be up sometime around Saturday or Sunday...wait patiently until then? **


	3. The Way I love you, the Way I Kill You

**Ah...the final installment. Saya would love to say something memorable, but well... yeah. Saya really liked working on this (and for those of you who are worried, she will get back to work on her usual stories now), so she's glad she chose to do it. Thank you for reading! **

**Disclaimer: Saya doesn't own DGM or "Boys Next Door". They belong to Katsura Hoshino and Kaori Yuki, respectively.**

**Rating: M for pedophilia, prostitution, nondescript sex, killing, violence, etc.**

3. The Way I Love you, The Way I Kill You

Lavi stood at the street corner, feeling absolutely nothing like himself and loving it. The night before he and Allen had finalized the plans for his escape, which called for him to enlist the help of the only other person in the city he felt he could trust. The old librarian whom he had somehow sort of befriended thought it was high time he left his current life behind, and though he complained about helping, did so diligently.

So Lavi had been given a change of clothes that didn't resemble anything he owned in the slightest (he felt a little stifled and over-clothed, but he rather liked that), had dyed his hair and styled it in a way that perfectly covered his right eye (he felt oddly naked without his eye patch on), and was given colored contacts so that when he next looked into the mirror, he stood shocked. If he had not known it was himself, he would've wondered who the person being reflected back at him was.

Lavi heaved a sigh and leaned back on the outer wall of a corner store, tapping his foot. How long was he supposed to wait for his ride to the airport, anyway? Allen had said before they parted that he would call before Tyki left the house for him. He hadn't received that call yet and was starting to get worried that maybe something was wrong with Allen. But Lavi still had the name tag in his pocket, so surely...

His phone rang in his hand, and he immediately pushed the talk button. Allen's bright voice greeted him when he answered. His friend seemed excited at the prospect of finally being able to save someone from that place, but Lavi knew that Allen was taking this more seriously than anyone else.

"Lavi! That was quick. Are you already waiting for Tyki at the street corner?" Allen asked, with what seemed to be amazement at Lavi's speed in his voice. Lavi looked around at his surroundings, as if humoring Allen, though the boy couldn't see him. He was indeed at a street corner, in the more upscale, wholesome part of the city. It felt oddly clean there and Lavi felt just a little out-of-place. Apparently, Tyki's place of residence resided close to this area. His not going directly to the man's house was for Tyki's own safety.

"Yeah, been waiting for a while now Allen. What's taking you guys so long?"

"Sorry! Tyki decided to rent a car from a place out of town, and it took him longer to get back than expected, damn rush hour. I just finished fixing him up so that he's nearly unrecognizable, and he certainly doesn't looklike a professional anything now..." Allen trailed off here and gave a childish giggle. "He looks more like a hobo than anything, and even got a crappy old rental to fit the image..." Well, it would seem that Allen had enjoyed messing with his neat and professional lover's appearance quite a bit. Lavi blanched as he heard Tyki comment in the background about only doing all of this because Allen had talked him into it, which resulted in a moment of mushy remarks that Lavi would've rather not have heard. Still, he had the grace to be happy for his friend.

"Well, Tyki's leaving now so he'll be by to pick you up in a moment," Allen said, and the rustling In the background tipped Lavi off to the fact that Allen was probably leaving now too.

"Ok. So We'll be meeting you at the airport, right?"

"Right, see you there."

"Yeah." And with that, their conversation ended. He shut his phone and worry started to gnaw away at his stomach. What if something went wrong? Or what if he made it away safely, but then Allen was recaptured and beaten until he told the Earl Lavi's location? What if this was the last time he saw his only friend? This city was hell for both of them, but Lavi would gladly stay there, if it meant he could stay with his best friend.

For some reason, the only fear that really stuck with him was the fear of never seeing Allen again.

000

Awkward. That lone word summed up their current situation pretty darned well. As Tyki drove toward the airport, he could feel the redhead that Allen had called Lavi glaring holes in his head, as animosity rolled off of him in waves. A weaker man would've squirmed in his seat, but Tyki just kept his eyes on the road and his back straight.

He knew why he was so hated, and he felt that he was deserving of Lavi's contempt. He'd been informed of what he'd done to this boy, he'd taken his lover's life and then left behind the mutilated corpse for him to find. And now he was shipping Lavi off to another state and monopolizing his best friend until the redhead had settled things out there for them. Lavi must've felt that was what he was doing, at least.

"You might be helping me here, and for that I thank you,"Lavi started, with only a tiny shred of sincerity in his voice. "But no matter what I'll always hate you."

"And I don't begrudge you the right to do so," Tykireplied evenly. He was preparing for an outburst, and just hoped that whatever happened wasn't enough to distract him while he drove. Lavi just folded his arms over his chest and huffed, put off by the way Tyki had refused to defend himself from the silent accusations that rang in his voice.

"...Allen better be safe with you. I swear if you so much as slap him I'll fly right back out here to kick your ass." The silent threat was there, buried shallowly in his words: If Allen dies, you will too.

"Well then I'll be sure to never harm him. After all, I doubt he'd appreciate it if I did something that caused all the hard work he put into helping you out of the city to go to waste." Once again there was an underlying message: The last thing I want is to do something to make him unhappy. Both men wondered how much longer they could speak this way, without blatantly saying what they wanted to say. Instead of continuing to talk, they both quieted, and while things in the car where still far from pleasant, Tyki felt that the animosity geared toward him had lessened just a bit.

000

The moment Lavi appeared at his gate, Allen hugged him. He hadn't been expecting the "attack", and was nearly bowled over by it. Still, he just chuckled and moved forward after Allen detached himself from Lavi's persons.

"What was that about Allen? I'm usually the touchy-feely one, not you," Lavi asked, though he had a pretty good idea of the answer. Tyki raised an eyebrow to the phrasing of the statement but said nothing, deciding that it really wasn't his place to interrupt the two just before they parted.

"It's obvious Lavi! I probably won't get to see you for more than a month, I'm going to miss my best friend!" Allen stated without embarrassment; He'd always been pretty good at being shameless about such things. Lavi muzzed his little friend's hair, earning a little yelp of surprise.

The three found seats near Lavi's gate, and spent their two-hour wait trying to squeeze as much as they possibly could into their last conversation. Lavi couldn't help but wonder why this did indeed feel like this would be the last time he ever spoke with Allen face-to-face, after all he would be seeing the younger male in a little over a month. Still, he supposed that because this would be the longest time they'd even been separated since they had met, it just felt like this was the last time they would be seeing each other.

At last, their wait came down to its final minutes. Lavi turned to face Tyki with a determined air.

"You! I am entrusting Allen's welfare to you until further notice, so you had better take good care of him! And be sure to keep it legal too, Allen's underage, you know." Said white-haired boy thought that particular comment was wasted on him, considering his situation. Tyki seemed to share his thoughts, but said nothing.

"I'll be sure to do that. We'll be seeing you in a month, and I assure you he'll be perfectly fine," Tyki replied. Allen wondered why this all sounded so formal, like he was being given away for marriage. It was a little embarrassing, really.

"I'm serious though Tyki," Lavi said, and he truly looked the part. "If he dies, I will come back to kill you myself." Lavi turned away from Tyki then and faced Allen, who was suppressing a shiver, the idea chilled him. This time it was Lavi's turn to hug the younger, placing an affectionate and brotherly kiss on the smaller boy's forehead as he did so.

"Thank you so much Allen. I can hardly believe this is actually happening and it's because of everything you did. We've finally escaped..." _'I just wish Yuu had been able to come with us...' _Lavi shookoff his negative thoughts before they tainted his mood; He'd just haveto live for both himself and Kanda. "I'll be sure to live our dream well out there, so you'd better meet me there soon!"

Allen hugged his brother-figure back, smiling against his shoulder. "I will, we'll see each other in a month, promise. But you might want to go before you miss your flight to our dream," Allen finished with a joking tone that hid his sadness well. He hoped he wouldn't develop separation anxiety. Lavinodded, and with a final wave boarded his flight.

The moment the plane lifted off the ground, Lavi suddenly wished he was back with Allen again.

000

Day by day passed by, and if Tyki were a more poetic person, he'd say he felt like he was in a dream. He started looking forward to coming home from work more than he looked forward to going. Every day he'd wake up to find the person who was seeming more and more like an angel to him still sleeping peacefully on his bed. Of course, the person he came home to was usually more of a devil of destruction. Allen seemed determined to teach himself how to cook, even though it was more than obvious that he couldn't make anything more complicated than cereal. Tyki wondered if the boy had ever cooked anything for himself, and feared the idea of Allen attempting to use cooking appliances. Still, his efforts were starting to pay off...a bit. It was cute to see him try, at least.

Sometimes Allen would even come to see him at work, and now that wasn't the dreadful thing it had been at first. They both remembered that they were supposed to be foster brothers in public, and played their roles well. Allen started coming to visit the daycare often, and found that he was actually quite good with the children. Though he couldn't be officially hired at the understaffed daycare, he still chose to volunteer there. Tyki enjoyed watching Allen with the kids, he somehow fit right in with them. He was secretly glad that his kitchen would be spared as long as Allen spent his afternoons at the hospital.

He also thanked God that Allen had his own cell phone, because Lavi called Allen diligently almost every day. Tyki wondered how Allen intended to pay such a phone bill. Sometimes he'd even find _himself_ talking to the redhead, and he was pleased to find it wasn't the tense thing he'd imagined it would be, though he still felt like he was talking to an in-law, and not Allen's friend.

Allen smiled daily. Tyki had never imagined someone could seem so happy all the time. The best-and perhaps the most bizarre- part of that was that he was always so sincere. Where did the boy get all of those smiles from and why were they so bright? Like a guiding light of some kind, from the moment Tyki had seen it he couldn't help but follow he who held that light.

'_The most filthy, the most pure...one with no claims to innocence has the most innocent smile. His smile has burnt itself into my memory.' _That's how it felt at least, and Tyki could only think of a verse he'd heard once upon some distant time: "So the last shall be first, and the first last." Because he was no longer controlled by his old situation, Allen's role had changed. Tyki wondered if he had always smiled so brightly.

"Tyki, you're out of work now!" Allen greeted with a wave when said man walked into the daycare center that day. Allen turned to Rhode, whom he had befriended and accidentally enamored (her kiddie crush was rather cute and it left Allen adorably flustered). "See, I told you he'd be down soon."

Rhode huffed and clung to Allen's neck. "Hmph! I only wanted him to come quickly because mama wanted him to bring me home today! Otherwise I'd want to stay here and keep you all to myself!" Rhode declared, giving Tyki a determined look. The older man simply raised an eyebrow.

Allen flushed and looked between the two. "Rh-Rhode, what are you talking about? I thought you liked Tyki."

"I do, but this is a war where you are the prize!" Rhode pointed to his face to emphasize her point.

Allen stammered for a moment, as he went red in the face. "Rhode he's my brother! I hardly think he wants to win that sort of war!" Rhode gave Allen a look that said "do you think I don't know you're lying?" The boy sighed, thinking that Rhode was much sharper than a girl her age should've been. The two went back to playing with chalk on the asphalt as Komui came from his office to talk to Tyki as he always did.

'_Sheesh, they start on all that love stuff so young,' _Tyki mentally commented as he walked toward his colleague. They exchanged their usual greetings and talked about little things for a few moments.

"Their conversation reminded me of something..." Komui started, and Tyki sensed a question was going to follow. "I wanted to ask you this for a long time but I suppose it's an odd question." Komui certainly looked a bit uncomfortable with the idea of asking it. His face was tinted a light pink and he simply refused to meet Tyki's eye. Tyki realized that the day he knew would eventually come had arrived, and prepared himself for whatever reaction his friend would have to his answer.

"Um...He's...not really your foster brother, is he?" Komui asked in his round-about way. Tyki shook his head no. "It figures, you two act the part but it always feels like there's a hidden meaning to it all. I don't think anyone besides Rhode is really onto it yet..."

"Small mercies." Tyki couldn't help but think that being the little girl's rival would result in a tortured future.

"Still..." A teasing grin spread on the Chinese man's face, making Tyki raise an eyebrow. "You know he's total jail bait, right?" Tyki dropped his head into his palm, and got the distinct feeling that no one would stop pointing that out until Allen turned 18 and even then...

000

The Earl's perpetual grin twitched. He'd just heard some rather troublesome news. After that damned redhead whose name he'd already forgotten escaped, his good-for-nothing nephew had stopped working. Actually, it seemed that the boy had stopped working even before then. Usually this wasn't much of a problem, he would just have his men track the run-away down and bring them back for a lesson on what happens when they skip work. People tended to stay rather obedient after their first few beatings.

But this nephew of his and his stupid little friends...! He and his little group of three had tried to escape numerous times and it seemed as though they could never be broken of that habit of trying to get away. The worst part was that they were exceptionally popular and any time spent tracking them down and then letting them recuperate was money out of the Earl's already fat pockets.

And now all three of them were gone. The Asian boy couldn't be helped, he'd been killed, it was his bad luck that he'd been a victim. The redhead seemed to have somehow made it out of the city without any of his men spotting him, and had left without a trace. They had combed the city for him and hadn't been able to find out anything about his whereabouts. How he'd managed to even shake all of his watchers was beyond him. The Earl was sure that his useless nephew would know where the boy was, but now he was missing too, and no one knew what he was doing either.

And his gang of fools had waited so long to tell him all of this! They said they had hoped to find both of the run-aways before the problem became big enough for the Earl to have to worry over, but really he knew they'd just been too afraid to tell him of their own incompetence. Still, he did his best to remain calm in front of his henchmen, while at the same time exuding an aura that promised a bloody demise if Allen was not captured immediately.

"Bo-boss..." One frightened man came to the front, his head low, his eyes seemed to be stuck on the Earl's shoes. "I think I saw him a few days ago... he was walking with this one man... I've seen the guy around the hospital a few times...I think he works there..."

The Earl raised an eyebrow, though that wasn't visible behind his oddly fashioned hat and opaquely shining glasses. "Really now? So he's gone and found himself some poor rich fool to use? Find this man and have him lead you to my _dear_ nephew, would you?" The men nodded and all of them silently felt a shiver go through them. Even men like themselves thought it was cruel to use one's own relatives in such a way. They all turned and silently left to find the poor boy.

000

Allen had chosen to stay home that day, instead of meet Tyki at the daycare. He'd secretly been working on his cooking in the mornings, and finally, _finally_, he'd managed to make something perfectly. It was a relatively simple dish, but the point was that he'd managed to make something without it tasting or looking horrible. So today he planned to have Tyki come home to a perfectly presentable dinner, so that the man could relax as soon as he came through the door.

However, when he cooked the meal and had it come out perfectly fine a second time, he started to feel like this was too good to be true. A little taste-testing was in order. Just a bite wouldn't hurt...

"Eating without me, I see." Tyki's voice reached his ears from the kitchen door. Allen's shoulders jumped up to his ears and he turned to smile sheepishly as he welcomed his lover home.

"N-no! I just...Well it actually came out looking good so I had to make sure it didn't taste like poison or anything..." Allen popped the fork-full of dinner into his mouth and huffed around it, looking accidentally cute. Surprised by what Allen said, Tyki peered around Allen's figure to find that indeed, he had managed to make something that didn't look like it would eat him.

"Wow, did a miracle just occur in my kitchen somehow?" Allen took the fork out of his mouth and felt tempted to fling it at Tyki. Despite his disbelief and joking words, Tyki sat down at the table and tested some of Allen's cooking himself.

Well damn, it tasted good. Tyki was amazed that the culinarily-inept Allen had been the one to make it. He took a large helping and watched from the corner of his eye as Allen's entire face lit up. He beckoned the boy to sit down with his hand and Allen obliged. At times like this it really did feel like a dream for the both of them.

But dreams ended. Outside a ridiculously loud car rushed by their home. That wouldn't have been unusual in most places, but this neighborhood was quiet and no one there even owned a car that could make so much noise. But Allen knew people who did, and a shiver went up his spine, unbidden by him. He suddenly felt very nervous and worried. Deciding it would be best not to worry Tyki, Allen waited until dinner was cleared off the table before telling his lover he was going to go for a walk.

'_I'm sure I'm being paranoid but... that sounded very familiar...I've got to check.' _Allen tried to crush his apprehensive feelings, but to no avail. He went into his room under the pretense of finding a sweater to wear, but instead took out the small trinket he kept hidden away in his drawer. Lavi had given the tag back to him in a letter two weeks ago, and Allen felt it was about time he let go of it. He trusted that he didn't need to keep this thing in order to have a connection to Tyki anymore.

"Um...Tyki, before I leave...I just remembered that there was something I had to give back to you, or more accurately, Wolfie..." Tyki gave Allen a questioning look, as though he didn't remember what the boy was talking about. Allen wouldn't have been all that surprised if he had forgotten, because for a time Allen had too. He made Tyki hold out his hand and dropped the name tag in his palm.

"It's about time I stop holding you hostage with this, right?" He asked, with as bright a smile as he could force. Tyki looked down at the little silver square before peering up at Allen with a hint of worry. Before Tyki could ask anything though, Allen hugged him.

"Goodbye! I love you," the boy said, and it was accompanied with a quick kiss on the cheek. Allen left the house quickly after that. Tyki wished he hadn't left, but told himself he was being foolish in thinking that Allen was in trouble. Eventually though, he couldn't stop himself from following after the boy.

000

Allen had just turned the corner when he suddenly felt strong hands grabbing both of his arms. He remained unshaken though, as he had been expecting this. The farther he'd gotten from the safety of Tyki's house, the more sickeningly sure he was that his fears were coming true. He'd been found.

It had been stupid to stay in the city, he knew. He should've just left with Lavi, but he had wanted to stay with Tyki now that he had him in his grasps. It didn't seem like spending one extra month in the city would've been so dangerous, and maybe Allen had gotten careless when Lavi had told him that things would be all set for Tyki and him in a week. He was going to pay for his foolishness now, he knew.

It didn't take long to reach the Earl's home; The man practically controlled the city from his recliner. Allen felt sick as he walked into that house, that damned place where he'd been told his life was no longer his. Once the door to the Earl's meeting room had been opened, Allen had been roughly thrown to the man's feet. He got up quickly, looking up at his uncle with all the contempt in his once-abused body. No one else had the courage to glare at this man, but Allen did, he always had and he always would.

But that was what made him such a threat.

"Maybe you didn't get the hint uncle, but I've quit," Allen stated coldly, unwilling to yield to the sheer rage that was radiating from the obscenely smiling man before him.

"I don't recall saying you could, Allen," the Earl replied, and his grin seemed to grow impossibly wider. Allen's glare intensified in turn.

"I don't need your permission to leave, just because you used to have me trapped here doesn't mean you own me!" Those around them were shocked that Allen could speak so boldly to the Earl. People simply didn't do that, when a run-away was brought back, they were usually too afraid of their punishment to speak. Allen stood proudly though, and didn't cower.

The Earl looked over his glasses at the boy. "You act so confident, but you do realize that you can only live because of me, don't you? Sooner or later the poor gentlemen whom you've been leeching off of will get tired of you and you'll end up right back here," the Earl taunted, making Allen's face contort in a snarl.

"You're wrong! I'm not _leeching_ off of anyone! I earn my keep cleanly, and don't need your help to live doing that! I won't ever come back here again, so stop bothering me!" Allen turned on his heel, about to leave the office when he was once again grabbed by his brutish escorts. He struggled against them but they didn't let go, and instead brought him back to the Earl.

"Allen, Allen, when will you learn that you can't run away? I thought I had already taught you this lesson, but it seems you need to be taught again." It displeased the Earl to see that instead of looking fearful at the threat, Allen spat at his feet. He waw determined to make this last rebel realize that escape was hopeless.

"I see. If teaching you not to run is useless, then perhaps I should instead teach your little friend not to help you run?" Finally, he got the reaction he wanted. Allen's eyes widened with fear for his lover, and then filled with fiery rage.

"Don't you dare hurt him...DON'T EVEN TRY IT!" The boy shouted as he pulled against the hands and arms that held him still with renewed vigor.

Yes, the Earl would be sure to break this one once and for all.

000

Two weeks. It had been two whole weeks since Allen had walked through his front door and hadn't come back. This was unexpected. Allen always came back, he was never gone this long. Sometimes he would be gone for a few hours, or a whole afternoon but he always came back. This was horribly worrying, and Tyki wasn't sure what to do. He was wracking his brain, trying to think of somewhere that Allen would be, he'd even tried going back to that club to find him, but no one knew where he was.

Lavi had heard about it right away, and had been telling Tyki places to look. He started calling more than once a day, and it was obvious the worry was getting to him.

"Shit, I knew I shouldn't have left him there...I felt it the moment my plane left, it felt like he should've come with me instead of staying there..." Was what he said almost every day, with a voice thick with worry. Tyki could perfectly see the redhead pacing around his apartment and biting his thumb nail as he spoke.

"He's going to show up again soon, I'm sure of it," Lavi said one day, instead of his usual worried mantra of "I should've taken him".

"How do you know?" Tyki asked, curious as to how this information had come to the redhead.

"Because, any time one of us... ran away, no matter what we were always made to work again after a few weeks time...I think that since Allen hasn't shown up in so long, that he was undoubtedly captured and...he'll show up again the moment he is able to, I know it." Tyki didn't appreciate the sound of despair that was in Lavi's voice.

"You act like that's a bad thing. The minute he's back I'll rush him up to where you are, ok? You said things were just about ready out there anyway so..."

"But do you really think he'll be fit for travel, or even be..._right_, after two weeks of torture, most likely?" Tyki felt like he'd just been drenched in ice water. He hadn't really understood before, he'd been told but it just hadn't sunk in until Lavi had worded it so directly. Allen wouldn't come back needing just a few bandages and reassuring words, would he?

"I see then... In any case, I'll call you when he returns, and we can decide what to do from there," Tyki decided, and a moment later the two hung up.

000

Lavi had been right to say that Allen would turn up soon. It was two days after their conversation that Tyki had come back from another day of searching to find the boy standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Tyki didn't even bother to take his soaking wet coat off before hugging the boy.

"Allen are you all right? It's been two weeks since you left. Do you have any injuries, anything that needs to be treated now? Thank God you're back..."

"Yes...I'm glad to be back... More than anyone I want to be with you..." Something in Allen's voice, maybe it was the unfeeling way in which he'd said such usually tender words, made Tyki pull back. He tried to convince himself that he was afraid for Allen, not of him.

He took a moment to take in Allen's looks. His face was bruised, and his hair was combed over his face in such a way that it hid the worse of the injuries. His eyes were void and emotionless, cold as they had been those first few times he'd seen the boy. And there was something else wrong with his eyes too; His pupils were dilated. Tyki suspected that whomever Allen had last been with had given him a nearly lethal dosage of something potent and most likely illegal.

"Allen...what happened to you? You look so battered..." '_So broken.' _Tyki realized asking would most likely get him nowhere, he doubted Allen was in his right mind at the moment.

"It doesn't concern you, Tyki. I no longer have anything to do with you." Tyki looked at Allen with increasing caution. Allen reached into his coat pocket and slowly pulled out a gun. So the boy had been drugged and armed? Tyki realized it now, the full evil of the Earl, or whoever the hell was pulling Allen's strings. He wouldn't be content with just pulling them apart, he wanted to break Allen by taking away his only chance at escape, he wanted to break the boy by making him take away the person he loved most with his own hands.

"I didn't get it before, but I do now," Allen started, looking as though he were already dead. "I was stupid before, childishly naive... It was foolish to think I could escape. Normal people hardly ever make it out of the Earl's grasp, and he paid such particular attention to me, how could I really escape? A few brave men before you have tried to save me, and all of them were killed, did you know?" Allen lifted the gun from his side and pointed it at Tyki's chest.

"I'm going back, because I haveto, because it's the only thing I can do right, the only way I can live. You gave it a good try, Tyki, but in the end even you failed. Because you got so far, I'll kill you myself, it'll be a lot faster than anything the Earl's men would do, I'm being merciful."

_The sounds of the carnival drive you crazy...The flashing lights, the Merry-go-round's cheerful tune...And the height of the ferris wheel all drive you mad in that twisted carnival._

"I don't need you anymore!"

'_Those emotionless eyes...like when we first met. Do you always face death so calmly? Must you look through me that way? Stop pinning me down with your eyes! Stop seeing through me! Don't look at me!'_

"Don't look at me..!" With that old demand repeating itself in his head like a mantra, Tyki's mind slipped quickly into it's most dangerous state. With trembling fingers he picked up a kitchen knife.

"_Tyki...keep me all to yourself..."_

With a quick motion and a spray of blood, Tyki stabbed through the heart of the one he held closest to him. The shock of the pain seemed to bring Allen back to himself, and before he could fall backwards, he dropped his gun and grabbed Tyki's shirt. With bloody lips, he kissed Tyki one final time. The life-water decorated the boy's smiling lips like rouge. Tyki never imagined he would see that pure smile tainted with red.

"You kept your promise...Tyki. Given me my only freedom...'

'_Maybe that's the only answer anyway, maybe none of us can really escape as long as we exist in this world...'_

'_And never tell a soul..._'

"Love you..."

Allen's body slumped forward, and crumpled to the floor. For a moment, Tyki couldn't bring himself to look at him, laying on the floor with that knife protruding obscenely from his chest. Instead he looked to the boy's gun, which had dropped to the floor just before the boy had. He knelt down to check it; it was empty, Allen had never intended to kill Tyki, from the start, this was how he had wanted it to go.

Like someone standing on cracking ice, watching silently as it broke apart before falling under, Tyki held onto his sanity just long enough for one last call to Lavi.

"Hey Allen, it's not everyday that you call me fir-"

"-Lavi." Tyki stopped the redhead mid-sentence with his cold voice.

"...What's going on?"

"Remember how you said you'd come back if anything happened to Allen?"

"Tyki what the hell-!"

"You'd better come back," was all Tyki said before he hung up the phone. The ice had cracked, and now he could feel himself plunging into icy depths as he finally looked at Allen. His face was so pale and lifeless, tilted at an odd angle to the side as blood trickled from his mouth. His lifeless eyes stared into nothingness. He fell to the floor besides the boy, holding the lifeless body tightly in his arms, as though his own heat and life would seep into the body and bring his young lover back. He kissed his lips in some childish hope that he would wake, but felt their chill, and their last bit of warmth receding, and knew nothing could bring him back now.

000

Lavi had taken the fastest mode of transportation he could find back to Los Angeles, and arrived at Tyki's home the next morning. His fear was realized the moment he stumbled into the kitchen; It smelt like death and dried blood. Tyki sat on the floor, still holding the boy as though he were a priceless doll. For a moment, the redhead couldn't distinguish the living from the dead.

Lavi cautiously walked closer to the two, and felt Allen's face. It was colder than anything he'd ever felt, and he wished so badly to warm the boy. He glared at the broken-but still living man who held his friend.

"Why...? He loved you... I had actually started thinking he was safe with you... Why? Why have you stolen everyone from me?" It was quite obvious that Tyki was in no state to answer, so for the time being, Laviinvestigated the scene, being careful not to touch anything. He found the bloody knife, carelessly thrown to the ground, and the blank gun that looked very much like the ones the Earl usually gave to his henchmen. Slowly, his anguished mind pieced things together. Allen had chosen to die at the hands of the person he loved, rather than kill him.

"You're here to kill me, right?" The words sounded as though they had been dragged out of Tyki's throat, though there was an underlying message, as there always was when the two talked: Please kill me.

Lavi didn't answer him, and instead asked, for the sake of finding out for sure what Allen had wanted: "What did he say... before he...?"

"He told me... I kept my promise...said he was free..."

'_Said he loved me with his dying breath...'_

"I'm not going to kill you, because you aren't the one who killed him. Not really, anyway..." Tyki didn't understand what Lavi had said. The fact that he had killed Allen would forever be ingrained in his memory, there was no possible way he hadn't done it. Lavi stood up.

"The Earl was the real cause of all of this..." Lavi clarified, but it didn't help Tyki at all. Lavi didn't bother trying to consol the man, for he was so torn himself that he didn't know what he could say to sooth the other's bottomless pain. Instead of staying around or calling the police or anything, Lavi picked up the empty gun from the floor, and left the house.

000

"This is the truth behind these horrendous deeds," A smartly dressed lawyer said. Tyki was nearing the end of his trial, any moment now he would be sentenced to death for the murders he had committed, he had to be, _hoped_ to be.

"The seven murders committed by Tyki Mikkcannot be excused, however the last victim, Allen Walker, was the one he loved above everyone else. Please be lenient with him."

'_No, don't ask for lenience...'_

Tyki was called to stand, and his verdict was read to him; Guilty, as he knew he would be. The jury seemed to have taken pity on him though, thanks to the lawyer's pleading. He would be sentenced to 140 years in prison with no chance of parole. He wished they would'vejust killed him instead. 140 years? He wouldn't even live that long, he would spend the rest of his life wishing to be somewhere he could never go, to be with someone he could never see again.

"Why are you making me live...?" He asked quietly, as the courtroom roared to life with protests against the jury's decision. They wanted him dead too, they were the ones that truly took pity on him.

"Allen..."

000

It had taken a long time for him to get this far, but he had finally done it. Lavi stood in the Earl's office, facing that man whose smile haunted his nightmares. After some underhanded dealings with some of the Earl's henchmen, Lavi had procured bullets and an audience with the fat bastard himself.

He didn't even hesitate to pull the trigger.

'_For Allen.'_

000

"He's improved so much since the prison sent him over here..." A nurse from the mental ward commented to another, as she stared at the broken man who was sitting on a bench on the roof. There was a high railing around the roof, so the nurses didn't feel the need to pay constant attention to the man, and instead looked towards each other as they spoke.

"He even smiles now, but he still won't speak. Maybe that's for the best, though?"

"It's amazing to think he was a murderer just two years ago, he's so kind." A strong wind made the nurses squeal and hold their skirts down.

Tyki looked up to the sky, letting his eyes tear up a little because of the wind. He closed his eyes for just a second, but when he opened them again he saw that pure smile he had never thought he would see again. Allen stood before him on the edge of the roof, and suddenly there was no railing. His smile widened, beckoning the one he loved closer.

'_The most filthy, the most pure...one with no claims to innocence has the most innocent smile. His smile has burnt itself into my memory..._'

Allen reached out to him, and once again Tyki held the smiling boy in his arms.

000

"_Tyki, do you love me?"_

"_With all my being."_

000

Rhode sat in the front lawn of her home, watching Wolfie play. Since Tyki couldn't take care of him anymore, she had taken him home to keep. She looked up to the sky for a moment as a strong breeze passed by. The day was peaceful, yet she had just heard news that her old friend Tyki had finally gone to join the one he loved. It made sense that they should be together on such a beautiful day, a day as bright as Allen's smile.

Wolfie crawled onto her lap and looked up with her.

"Can you see them too, Wolfie? They're together now."

Wolfie's collar gleamed in the sunlight.

0 The End 0

**Saya kinda ended up putting this chapter off a bit...maybe it was because she didn't want to kill anyone else off? Maybe because she didn't want to write such a tragic end (and at the same time did)? Maybe she just didn't want this story to end? Oh well, it's over and Saya is depressed because in order to write this morbid last chapter right Saya had to depress herself... It's safe to say that Saya gets a little too sympathetic while writing. Oh well, hopefully you enjoyed this sad little story...Saya bits you adieu. **


End file.
